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Apple is betting the farm on a VR headset

D

David Clapson

Well-Known Member
"Apple looks to its first headset for next breakthrough product"
Subscribe to read | Financial Times No paywall archive.ph

This will be fun to watch. Is it a sign of the end times? Will it take down Apple and trigger a massive crash of tech stocks? I can hardly wait. I'd love to be in the meetings where they're persuading themselves that a VR headset will be as big as the smart phone.
 
David Clapson said:
"Apple looks to its first headset for next breakthrough product"
Subscribe to read | Financial Times No paywall archive.ph

This will be fun to watch. Is it a sign of the end times? Will it take down Apple and trigger a massive crash of tech stocks? I can hardly wait. I'd love to be in the meetings where they're persuading themselves that a VR headset will be as big as the smart phone.
Click to expand...
Is it really betting the farm, or has it spotted an fairly easy way to cut Meta down to size?
 
Billionaires See VR as a Way to Avoid Radical Social Change
02.15.2021
Tech oligarchs are encouraging the creation of virtual worlds as a cheap way to avoid problems in the real one.
The future of virtual reality is far more than just video games. Silicon Valley sees the creation of virtual worlds as the ultimate free-market solution to a political problem. In a world of increasing wealth inequality, environmental disaster, and political instability, why not sell everyone a device that whisks them away to a virtual world free of pain and suffering?

Tech billionaires aren’t shy about sharing this. “Some people read this the wrong way and react incorrectly to it. The promise of VR is to make the world you wanted. It is not possible, on Earth, to give everyone all that they would want. Not everyone can have Richard Branson’s private island,” Doom co-creator and former CTO of Oculus John Carmack told Joe Rogan during a 2020 interview. “People react negatively to any talk of economics, but it is resource allocation. You have to make decisions about where things go. Economically, you can deliver a lot more value to a lot of people in the virtual sense.”
Click to expand...

Virtual reality is an attractive escape, but it’s not a solution to the world’s ills. The problems of the real world will persist beyond the borders of the metaverse created by companies such as Epic, Valve, and Facebook. Without decisive and radical action, our planet will continue to burn, the gap between the rich and poor will grow, and totalitarian political movements will flourish. All while some of us are plugged into a virtual world.

Worse, the virtual world will be one owned and controlled by the companies that create them. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a Facebook-branded set of VR goggles strapped to an emaciated human face—forever.
Click to expand...
 
Tbh. It looks the metaverse is finally coming after a few false starts, so being #1 in headsets is probably a bright idea.

Also...

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If you're an early adopter and missed bitcoin then maybe you'd be interested in this (or at least the ideas)

Personally I think buying a big piece of Metaverse land and turning it into a venue could possibly be a good investment. Just look at ABBA and the virtual gigs on Fortnite.
 
I don't think headsets for everyday wear will ever take off, unless they aren't really headsets. The FT piece says: "researchers at Citi expect that 1bn people — roughly the number of iPhone users today — will be wearing headsets by 2030". I think that could only happen if the headset function was distributed over several components; ordinary looking specs with sensors and displays/retinal projectors, an earpiece with speaker and microphone, and a body-worn base station with processors, battery, camera, storage, phone, wifi, bluetooth and more sensors. It could be in a pendant or clipped to clothing.
 
David Clapson said:
I don't think headsets for everyday wear will ever take off, unless they aren't really headsets. The FT piece says: "researchers at Citi expect that 1bn people — roughly the number of iPhone users today — will be wearing headsets by 2030". I think that could only happen if the headset function was distributed over several components; ordinary looking specs with sensors and displays/retinal projectors, an earpiece with speaker and microphone, and a body-worn base station with processors, battery, camera, storage, phone, wifi, bluetooth and more sensors. It could be in a pendant or clipped to clothing.
Click to expand...

I don't expect the amount of hardware you actually wear on your face will be very much for much longer.
 
but what is the application beyond on-line gaming? (which I don't do, excepting the guardian quick crossword and Wordle...I'm not sure it would add much to those)
I remember playing with this in 1992 in the Ministry of Defence, looking at VR control rooms on warships...I'm not sure that there's been much improvement since those days, except refresh speed...and I'm not sure there have been non-gaming applications. I know gaming is big...but surely not that big when Apple won't get a dominant market position.
 
The usual pattern is for Apple to enter a market by improving on something which another company has already launched. So if Apple is to have a headset by autumn, the precursor to it should already be on sale. Where is it?
 
pseudonarcissus said:
but what is the application beyond on-line gaming? (which I don't do, excepting the guardian quick crossword and Wordle...I'm not sure it would add much to those)
I remember playing with this in 1992 in the Ministry of Defence, looking at VR control rooms on warships...I'm not sure that there's been much improvement since those days, except refresh speed...and I'm not sure there have been non-gaming applications. I know gaming is big...but surely not that big when Apple won't get a dominant market position.
Click to expand...
Wut?? Augmented reality has so many compelling applications for use when just walking around.
 
David Clapson said:
I'm not sure anyone has identified a killer app yet. There could be substantial niche markets in tourism, translation, education, training and security Augmented reality - Wikipedia. But where's the killer app?? I spent ages trying to think of one a long time ago. I think it will have to be sold niche by niche.
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It will be led by gaming, with most likely separate enterprise platforms with an increasing overlap emerging over time.
 
Mapping could be excellent, satnavs, wandering around town and hill walking. The Ordnance Survey app has AR already integrating that into some specs would be ace.
 
Many of the proposed VR/AR apps are fundamentally anti-social, because they cut you off from other people. We need shared apps for use by groups. For example, you could have a sort of Gogglebox experience by watching a TV programme with your friends while you're all at home alone. One of you could be on holiday or at a gig or whatever, and your friends and family can share the experience with you. Kind of video conferencing, but socially, and on stilts. It could be good for kids to share experiences with their parents, and to get help with their homework.
 
pseudonarcissus said:
that gave me a migraine

I remain to be convinced
Click to expand...

That's very like the stuff that was on telly about "the information superhighway" in the 1990s.

Everything jangly and whizzy and cluttered.
I can see apps that remove advertising from the physical environment being more popular than ones that add it.
 
It’s got a lot of potential if they can design a headset which doesn’t totally suck balls.

I owned an Oculus and loved it except for the fact it was heavy AF and uncomfortable to wear after like 15 minutes. A proper nice design and some decent apps and I’ll be right back into VR again.
 
David Clapson said:
I'm not sure anyone has identified a killer app yet. There could be substantial niche markets in tourism, translation, education, training and security Augmented reality - Wikipedia. But where's the killer app?? I spent ages trying to think of one a long time ago. I think it will have to be sold niche by niche.
Click to expand...
The killer app will be porn. I can pretty much guarantee it.
 
The mobile internet has already led to a lot of psychosocial problems, with devices being designed to take your attention away from real-world human contact. The result is both distress and better access to control levers by those with power over the devices. My guess is that VR will accelerate even further down that path. I worry for where it leads. Humans are not just brains in jars, they are embodied beings evolved to live in concrete social contexts. Removing the embodied nature of social contact must have ramifications.
 
kabbes said:
The mobile internet has already led to a lot of psychosocial problems, with devices being designed to take your attention away from real-world human contact. The result is both distress and better access to control levers by those with power over the devices. My guess is that VR will accelerate even further down that path. I worry for where it leads. Humans are not just brains in jars, they are embodied beings evolved to live in concrete social contexts. Removing the embodied nature of social contact must have ramifications.
Click to expand...

VR is a more embodied experience than playing a flat screen game.
 
8ball said:
They seem fine about it so far.
Click to expand...

Especially if they have some of the rights.

Your favourite band is playing in Brazil. Pay a fiver, slip on your headset and be at the gig itself. Instead of playing to 30,000 people you're playing to 1 billion people.

Kerching.
 
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